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“So you’d throw over Chase, just on the off chance that this Dexter fella would get you an electric car.”

“Well, electric cars happen to be the future, and unfortunately they’re too expensive for my budget.” She shrugged. “A girl can dream, can’t she?”

“Dream on,” Vesta growled. “Odelia is breaking up with Chase over my dead body.” And to show her friend she wasn’t kidding, she promptly got up and headed over to the window, which offered an excellent view of the bar, where the frolicking couple were enjoying those first happy moments ofa new courtship. And as she snapped a couple more pictures, she suddenly noticed that Max and Dooley were seated right next to her granddaughter’s chair!

“Well, I’ll be damned,” she grunted.

“What is it?” Scarlett asked, and since she hadn’t noticed her friend joining her at the window, she jumped a foot in the air, and almost dropped her phone.

“What are you thinking, sneaking up on me like that!” she cried.

“He is handsome, isn’t he? And a widower, if Wikipedia is to be believed.”

“Look, there’s no way I’m allowing my granddaughter to hook up with this guy, so just get those sordid thoughts out of your head right now.”

“Oh, all right,” said Scarlett. “Don’t get your knickers in a twist.”

“I’m putting an end to this right now,” she said, and got busy typing a strongly worded message, adding the video and the pictures she shot as evidence. “There,” she said. “Now let’s see her ignoring her duties as a wife and mother now.”

Not to mention a pet parent. What was she thinking, dragging those impressionable cats along to her date with a billionaire? Didn’t she know that setting a bad example like that could scar those precious little dears for life?

“If this family didn’t have me,” she said, taking her position at the table again, “God knows what kind of trouble they’d get into.”

CHAPTER 10

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Marge Poole was assisting her husband in the backyard, weeding and removing dead leaves and heads from their precious flowers. She was outfitted for the occasion with rubber gardening gloves, her straw gardening hat and her gardening boots, and as the sun shone down on her back, she felt intensely satisfied when she regarded her work: the flowerbed that had been infested by weeds and bugs and whatnot once again looked vividly colorful and full of life—the kind of life your amateur gardener likes to see: absolutely devoid of pests.

“So what do you think, honey?” asked her husband, who was manicuring his herbaceous border until it looked fit for duty.

“About what?” she asked, taking a firmer grip on her little trowel.

“Well, Ted’s idea about the landscaper.”

“Oh, I don’t know,” she said. “Is it really worth the expense? I mean, we only have a very modest little garden, so I don’t think a landscaper will have enough to work with, let alone a gardener.”

“But we could join forces, us and the Trappers: get rid of that hedge and join our two backyards into one big one.”

“I’m not sure that’s such a good idea,” she said as she dug her trowel into the earth. “That hedge is there for a reason. It’s so we can have some privacy, and so can the Trappers. Otherwise what’s the point of having your own backyard? We could just as well cut down all the hedges and all the fences in the entire neighborhood and create a park.”

“Now why didn’t I think of that?” said Tex. “We should create one big park where all the kids could play! And then I could organize a barbecue for the entire neighborhood! Now wouldn’t that be fun?”

She gave her husband a skeptical look, which passed right over his head.“Let’s give it some more thought, shall we?” she suggested. Most of her husband’s more harebrained ideas rarely survived a couple of days’ serious reflection. Once Tex saw how impractical his idea was, he forgot all about it. Besides, she liked to do some sunbathing in her backyard from time to time, and if they cut down that hedge, that would be a thing of the past. No woman likes to sunbathe with the Ted Trappers of this world breathing down their neck.

Her phone buzzed, alerting her that a message had arrived, and she took it out of the front pocket of her gardening coveralls. When she saw the first line of the message, she frowned.‘Evidence of YOUR daughter’s CHEATING WAYS!!!!!!’

“Now what?” she murmured. At the same time, her husband’s phone also dinged, and for a moment they both studied the message Ma had sent. Then they turned to face each other, their mouths agape.

“I don’t believe this,” said Tex.

“Neither do I,” Marge agreed.

But there it was, clear as day: video and pictures of their one and only daughter, her arms around famous billionaire Edward Dexter, clearly having an intimate moment!

Just then, Grace made a gurgling sound. The little girl had been safely ensconced in her playpen, which Marge had placed on the terrace for the occasion, with a big umbrella to shade the little one from the sun.

“Oh, dear,” said Marge as she brought a distraught hand to her face. “What’s going to become of Grace now?!”